Pete Carroll departs from usual rhetoric. He, Seahawks feel urgency of test at Cowboys
These are urgent times for the Seahawks.
Even Pete Carroll has deviated from his “every-game-is-a-championship-opportunity” mantra.
This week’s opportunity, Thursday night at the high-riding Dallas Cowboys (8-3), is a season-defining one for Seattle (6-5).
The team’s 72-year-old coach and veteran of more than 50 years of football games admits that.
“This is an enormous opportunity for us,” Carroll said.
“Now, look at the schedule; I know what’s coming. Every one of those games are enormous opportunities for us to figure in, in our division and still battle for all of that, that’s there. The NFC games, huge. Because it’s a Thursday-to-Thursday, and what happened last Thursday, it’s a big opportunity right here.
“I don’t want to miss this.”
Carroll said Tuesday just before the team boarded its plane for Texas his players know the importance of Thursday’s game.
“I think it’s really obvious,” the coach said. “We’ve made the point.
“We’ve practiced accordingly.”
That’s different than Carroll’s usual “every game is big.”
The Seahawks have reached a pivotal point in their season. Seattle is two games plus a tie-breaker behind San Francisco for the NFC West lead. That’s been the Seahawks’ goal since they lost to the 49ers three times last season, including in the wild-card playoffs in January: Beat the Niners, win the division, earn home playoff games.
The Seahawks have had only two postseason games in Seattle since their last Super Bowl at the end of the 2014 season. That is the chief reason they haven’t advanced past the division round since that ‘14 season.
Hence, the urgency. You can feel and hear it around the Seahawks this week.
“We need a win,” veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed said. “We need to put a couple of wins together, stack them together.
“We need this one, for sure. This is going to be a huge game for us.”
The Cowboys have won five of six games. Their only loss in that span was by three points at 10-1 Philadelphia. Dallas has won 13 in a row at home. It is averaging 39 points per game the last five games.
Thursday the Seahawks will either lose for the fourth time in five games to fall to 6-6 and out of a playoff place they’ve been holding most of the season, or they will revive to 7-5. The difference is stark.
San Francisco, 8-3 coming off its 31-13 smacking of Seattle on Thanksgiving, plays at the Eagles on Sunday. Carroll knows if the Seahawks can rebound Thursday with a win they have a chance to move back to one game behind the 49ers for the division lead by the end of the weekend.
Seattle plays at San Francisco next week. The Seahawks host the Eagles the following week, Dec. 17.
Seattle’s schedule softens after this 49ers-Cowboys-49ers-Eagles gauntlet. The Seahawks play at Tennessee (4-7) Christmas Eve, then are home against Pittsburgh (7-4) New Year’s Eve and at Arizona (2-10) the weekend of Jan. 6-7 in the regular-season finale.
“We’re attacking. We’re not flinching,” tight end Will Dissly said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the past.
“You know what Coach Pete’s philosophy is. It’s all moving forward. ‘What can you do now? How can you help this team win now?’”
Geno Smith must improve
Geno Smith acknowledged this week he can help the Seahawks win now by getting the ball out more quickly than he has been.
The majority of the quarterback’s six sacks against the 49ers came as he waited — and waited — for DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and his receivers to run deeper routes in play caller Shane Waldron’s game plan. San Francisco’s defensive front mauled Seattle’s offensive line and besieged Smith.
The Seahawks converted just 3 of 11 third downs, continuing a season-long problem. They didn’t score an offensive touchdown.
They have one offensive touchdown in the last two games and only three in their last four games.
What gives Smith the confidence he and his offense can turn it around and flourish against the Cowboys? They will have All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons (11-1/2 sacks in 11 games) coming at Smith and NFL interception leader DaRon Bland defending his throws.
“I would just say tons of film that we can go back and watch and see a number of times where we’ve been really successful and been really explosive. We still have those same players and coaches,” Smith said.
“I trust in our process. I believe in the players around me. I believe in the coaches. I believe in myself. For us, it just gets back to doing what we do, which is playing good football, playing sound football and knowing that we can execute. That’s the reality, being confident in that.”
Smith, 33 and a first-time Pro Bowl QB last season for the Seahawks, is publicly unwavering in two things this season: taking accountability for the team’s failures — he said “it’s on me” and “it starts with me” again this week — and his confidence.
“I’ll always remain confident in myself. But I’m going to continue to preach that I’m even more confident in the guys around me,” Smith said, “and I know that we all collectively can get it done. That’s where it lies.”
Pete Carroll’s record of bouncing back
Since the 2012, the Seahawks have the NFL’s best winning percentage in games following an in-season loss. After losing on Thanksgiving to the Niners four days after they lost at the Los Angeles Rams, the Seahawks are 45-20 (.692) in games following a defeat.
Bobby Wagner has been on every one of those Carroll Seahawks teams except last season, his lone year playing for the Rams. The six-time All-Pro linebacker sees a reason for his coach’s record of having his Seattle teams bounce back when they’ve really needed to.
“I think it’s the positivity. I think it’s the consistency of the messaging,” Wagner said.
“Just understanding that every game is going to feel like a big game or feel like a big moment after a loss, because that’s just how the media works. It makes you feel like it’s the end of the world.
“But it’s not. If you can grasp that concept and put that game behind you and not let it leak into the next game, I think it sets you up for success — which I think he does a good job of.”
He needs to do a best job of that Thursday in Texas.
“It’s as tough as a match-up as we can get,” Carroll said, “and we have to step to it and take it on and make sure that we do everything we can to get it right.
“Can’t miss this opportunity.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 4:08 PM.
